Mel Brooks, the comedic legend, once said, “Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.” Comedy and tragedy are just two sides of the same mask. It’s natural that in our darkest moments we sometimes find ourselves laughing. And let’s face it, in a world filled with misfortune, laughter may be the only real medicine. All of which may explain why we gravitate to gallows humor in what we watch. 

Dark comedy movies and shows offer a way to confront the bleak aspects of the world within the safety bubble of the screen. They can be a coping mechanism in troubling times. And sometimes they serve as a needed reminder not to take life too seriously.

For those who understand what it is to simultaneously believe it’s the best of times and the worst of times, these recommendations are sure to be a kick straight to the funny bone. Enjoy these black comedies full of satire, cynicism, and all the macabre humor one could ask for. After all, the horrors persist, but so do we.

BEEF

It’s a familiar scenario: a near-miss accident in a parking lot. But on this particular day, neither party in the two vehicles involved is in the mood to play nice. So begins an intense and absurd spiral of vengeful acts by Danny Cho (Steven Yeun) and Amy Lau (Ali Wong) whose road-rage-fueled car chase leads to the downfall of everything they hold dear. As both deal with tension and stress in their professional and personal lives, they see in each other a target to unleash all of their pent-up frustrations, no matter the cost to others or themselves. The over-the-top war in this series is simultaneously hilarious and appalling, and luckily, it will be back for more in Season 2.

BEEF

2 Seasons   TV-MA   2023

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BoJack Horseman

In some ways, animation is the perfect format for dark comedy, and not many shows prove this as well as BoJack Horseman. Taking place in a world shared by humans and anthropomorphic animals, and centered around BoJack (Will Arnett), a former TV star now in midlife and facing a bit of an identity crisis as he grasps at his former glory while working on his autobiography with a ghostwriter, Diane Nguyen (Alison Brie). This alternate universe is set in Hollywoo (the ‘d’ was stolen) and the characters closest to BoJack — his human stoner housemate, his overly persistent cat agent, and his acting rival, a golden retriever named Mr. Peanutbutter (Paul F. Tompkins) — make for great absurdist humor. And sure, the series has plenty of laughs, but it isn’t afraid to address much darker issues like addiction, depression, and narcissism, all within true character development (a rarity in the animation world). So, though he may be a horse, BoJack’s failings and life lessons are deeply human. 

BoJack Horseman

6 Seasons   TV-MA   2014

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Dead to Me

Grief is a universal experience, which may be why it so easily translates to dark humor. This series starts with Jen Harding (Christina Applegate) grieving over the recent death of her husband in a hit-and-run accident. She goes to a support group where she meets Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini), who lost her fiancé recently to a heart attack, and who is Jen’s polar opposite. Jen is angry and unforgiving, Judy is cheerful and optimistic. Through their shared insomnia, they form a balanced friendship full of Judy’s quirky humor and Jen’s cynical outlook. A friendship that gets them through three seasons of deep lies, shocking secrets, and even murder.

Dead to Me

3 Seasons   TV-MA   2019

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Don't Look Up

This satirical film stars Jennifer Lawrence as Kate Dibiasky and Leonardo DiCaprio as Dr. Randall Mindy, two astronomers who discover a comet is headed toward earth in what would be an extinction-level event. When they try to warn the President of the US, they are met with apathy and political deflection. So they go public, appearing on a TV show to spread word that humanity has six months to save their planet with action. They are met with skepticism and charlatan “experts” hired to put doubt into the public’s mind. At every new farcical plot twist, the insane behavior exhibited demands to be laughed at, especially because it’s an allegory for all-too-similar problems in the real world. 

Don't Look Up

2h 23m   R   2021

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Entitled

While good dark comedies are meant to be thought-provoking, sometimes that thought is simply “Can this get any weirder?” Entitled endeavors to prove that, yes, it absolutely can. The series stars Brett Gelman — who proved that “weird” is his specialty in his role as Murray Bauman in Stranger Things — as disgraced reality TV plastic surgeon, Gabe, who is recently widowed and has learned that his wife, Liz, has a wealthy family back in England. Honoring her final wish to be laid to rest at the countryside estate where she grew up, Gabe travels to the Gothic mansion of her youth and meets her decidedly quirky and often spooky family. When he discovers that Liz may have sent him there to uncover other mysterious family secrets, he stays to find answers and encounters all kinds of bizarre things along the way.

Entitled

8 Episodes   TV-MA   2023

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I Care a Lot

It’s an art to play a protagonist who is also a certified villainous bad person, and in this film, Rosamund Pike does so to great success. Here, Pike plays Marla Grayson, a con artist who has found a perfect legal loophole that allows her to swoop into unsuspecting elderly people’s lives and attain legal guardianship, effectively giving her control of their finances and assets and even the ability to prevent any family members from accessing their loved ones. Marla gets a tip about a potentially lucrative retiree, Jennifer (Diane Weist), with no family, and successfully gains guardianship, quickly moving to sell Jennifer’s assets and steal the items in her safe deposit box. Little does Marla know that Jennifer isn’t her real name, and she does indeed have a family, a very dangerous family. The ambiguity of whom to root for in this standoff between equally evil people just adds to the black humor of it all.

I Care a Lot

1h 58m   R   2021

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Maniac

In a near-future version of society, two deeply troubled people enter a psychological drug trial hoping to be fixed. Owen Milgrim (Jonah Hill) comes from a wealthy family and struggles to stand on his own two feet due to possible schizophrenia, whereas Annie Landsberg (Emma Stone) has borderline personality disorder and a pharmaceutical drug addiction. In the trial, they are given drugs meant to organize their minds and lead to healthy stability and happiness. But the pills induce intense flashbacks and fantasy hallucinations, and eventually shared hallucinations between Owen and Annie. Navigating the surreal (and often darkly funny) landscapes of their shared dreams and facing their personal demons together, Owen and Annie form a real friendship, suggesting that the real cure for unhappiness in this life might just be having someone to struggle through it with.

Maniac

Limited Series   TV-MA   2018

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Russian Doll

Death is the darkest of subjects, but it becomes instantly more humorous when it happens to the same person, on repeat. This is Nadia’s reality when, after her 36th birthday party, she goes looking for her cat, Oatmeal, and gets hit by a taxi cab. Instantly she’s back in the bathroom of her party and the night begins again. Stuck in a time loop, Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) has to figure out what is happening and why, which gets even stranger when she meets another person also stuck in a loop of their own. Dealing with themes of grief and identity via a sci-fi scenario and gruesome but laughable ways to die, the series is mind-bending in the best way.

Russian Doll

2 Seasons   TV-MA   2019

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Sirens

There’s something about cults that can be so comedic. It may be that, as an outside spectator, such behavior seems bizarre. In Sirens, disaster elder sister Devon (Meghann Fahy) travels to find her younger sister Simone (Milly Alcock), who has gone incommunicado. When Devon reaches the remote island where Simone’s boss, Michaela “Kiki” Kell (Julianne Moore), lives on a vast estate, she finds her sister to be entirely unlike herself. She’s dressed up in the posh pastels Kiki prefers, has gotten rid of her tattoos, and has a relationship with a rich and older neighbor. Convinced something screwy is happening, Devon spends the weekend trying to figure out exactly who Kiki is and how to break her hold over her sister.

Sirens

Limited Series   TV-MA   2025

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The End of the F***ing World

Few do black comedy as well as the British. Their signature dry humor lends itself well to the genre. This British series follows the misadventures of James (Alex Lawther) and Alyssa (Jessica Barden), who run away from home together. James believes himself to be a psychopath, having not felt much emotion in his life and taking pleasure in killing small animals. When he meets Alyssa, he decides she’d be the perfect candidate for his first human kill, but being in no rush, he is happy to join her first in escaping their town. Her straightforward nature and impulsive anger combined with James’ quiet simmering somehow make for a winning match, turning this dark comedy into a dark romance.

The End of the F***ing World

2 Seasons   TV-MA   2017

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